Shooting Infrared in the Winter

Posted on Feb 8, 2018

Today’s Post by Joe Farace

For traditional infrared photography, the Wood Effect produces the bright to white re-production of the chlorophyll layer of deciduous plants, even non-deciduous plants and trees will show some effect and, to my mind, IR capture works perfectly well even with the snow on the ground.

Continuing a theme that I began on Mirrorless Photo Tips with a post entitled “What Inspires You to Make Photographs,” I’ve been making digital infrared images in a winter when the only leaves on the trees are from evergreens, like these Ponderosa Pines in the background of these leafless aspens.

Today’s Image was shot literally in my own backyard with a Panasonic Lumix G6 that had been converted to infrared-only capture by LifePixel and a Lumix G Vario 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 ASPH lens. Exposure was 1/40 sec at f/16 and ISO 400. The RAW file was converted to monochrome using Silver Efex Pro enhanced with the Glamour Glow filter in Color Efex Pro added for a wintry look.

If you would like to experience some of the same thrill of discovery that occurred during the first stage of your personal photographic education, my suggestion is never stop exploring. Try some new things. Maybe it’s infrared photography but whatever you do try something that’s outside your normal comfort zone, which was the subject of yesterday’s post.